Meander through Manchester’s city centre with a local architect, discovering the places and stories that shaped an international city.

Join us for a walking tour: an Introduction to Manchester!

Date: Multiple (plus other dates - please see our tour calendar)

Times: vary

Meeting Place: Outside the front of The Edwardian Manchester hotel

(the former Free Trade Hall) on Peter Street

Your Manchester-born architect-guide leads this relaxed 2-hour walking tour through the very backbone of the city centre, moving backwards in time… from bold modern interventions to Manchester’s oldest surviving buildings.

For further details, FAQs and other dates, please visit: https://www.here-then-now.tours

Starting at the former Free Trade Hall, you’ll discuss one of the city’s most debated civic spaces and its changing relationship with culture, power, and public life. Nearby, the Friends Meeting House, historic police buildings, and new commercial towers reveal tensions between faith, authority, and modern development. Manchester Town Hall is explored as a symbol of governance, civic pride, and industrial confidence.

The route then weaves through quieter streets and passages, including St Mary’s “Hidden Gem” and historic ginnels around King Street, uncovering themes of faith, trade, and the dense urban fabric that shaped everyday life. At St Ann’s Square, social history comes sharply into focus through discussion of homelessness, past and present.

Manchester’s cultural edge emerges at Corbieres, before the walk opens out at the Royal Exchange, where cotton, capitalism, and global trade transformed the city.

This is a conversational, architect-led introduction rather than a lecture, ideal for first-time visitors and curious locals who want context, stories, and a deeper understanding of how Manchester became the city it is today.

Description supplied by the event organiser.